Who's Out There?

« I don’t know that there are real ghosts and goblins, But there are always more trick-or-treaters than neighborhood kids. » — Robert Breault

Here’s a page from The Western Publishing Company‘s 1970 Golden Memo Calendar, from the brush of skillful Canadian illustrator Mel Crawford (1925-2015).

What’s that? You’re not familiar with Mr. Crawford’s name? Well, perhaps his work will ring a bell. Take a look at some of his œuvre through this fine overview by historian Ivan Kocmarek.

For some sense of Crawford’s range, here’s an episode of Professor Harbinger, a speculative ‘science’ backup feature that regularly appeared in Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom. This, the inaugural vignette, saw print in the magazine’s second issue (Dec. 1962, Gold Key). It was scripted by the prolific Dick Wood; Crawford must have enjoyed the feature, as he stuck around to illustrate its first dozen or so instalments. He was succeeded by fellow Ontarian Win Mortimer.

-RG